The Unspeakable Perk eBook

Shortly thereafter, Miss Polly Brewster appeared upon
the balcony of the American Legation, and performed
an illegal act. Upon a day not designated as
a Caracunan national holiday, she raised the flag
of an alien nation and fixed it, and the gilded youth
of Caracuna in the street below cheered, not the flag,
which would have been unpatriotic, but the flag-raiser,
which was but gallant, until they were hoarse and
parched of throat.

XI

PRESTO CHANGE

After the battle, Miss Brewster reviewed her troops,
and took stock of casualties, in the patio. None
of the allied forces had come off scatheless.
Galpy, whose injuries had at first seemed the most
severe, responded to a stiff dose of brandy. A
cut across the scientist’s head had been hastily
bandaged in a towel, giving him, as he observed, the
appearance of a dissipated Hindu. To Von Plaanden’s
indignant disgust, his military splendor was seriously
impaired by a huge “hickey” over his left
eye, the memento of a well-aimed rock. Cluff
had broken a finger and sprained his wrist. Mr.
Brewster was anxious to know if any one had seen two
teeth of his on the pavement or whether he was to
look for later digestive indications of their whereabouts.
Both of the young cricketers had been battered and
bruised, though it was nothing, they gleefully averred,
to what they had meted out. And Carroll had a
nasty-looking knife-thrust in his shoulder.

All of them were disheveled, dilapidated, and grimy
to the last degree, except the Hochwaldian, who still
sat his horse, which he had ridden into the patio.
But Miss Polly said to herself, with a thrill of pride,
that no woman need wish a more gallant and devoted
band of defenders. Leaning over them from the
inner railing of the balcony, she surveyed them with
sparkling eyes.

“It was magnificent!” she cried.
“Oh, I’m so proud of you all! I could
hug you, every one!”

“Better come down from there, Polly,”
said her father anxiously. “Some of those
ruffians might come back.”

“Not to-day,” said Sherwen grimly.
“They’ve had enough.”

“That is correct,” confirmed Von Plaanden.
“Nevertheless, there may be disorder later.
Would it not be better that you go to the British
Legation, Fraulein?”